In February 2020 Ray Schellinger undertook a journey walking with Venezuelan refugees in Colombia. He walked from Palmira to Mondomo, a journey of 100 kilometers, a small section of the 2,000 km trek many refugees take from Colombia and into Peru. We are posting some of Ray’s FB posts from along the way.
The resiliency of children is surprising to me, shocking actually, every time I see it.
Wherever we work with displaced people, we are working with children, be that in squalid migrant camps, refugee centers or anywhere along the paths which these sojourners are forced to flee.
In our political debates, when we think in terms of migration, the images that come into our minds don’t often include children. This is by design, especially when our attitudes about immigration are negative, and when we want to close the door to our own compassion.
We choose to ignore the presence of children.
When certain politicians talk about immigrants, they like to paint pictures of criminals, rapists and drug traffickers. Perhaps we want to strip away the humanity of people in order to judge them, blame them, without any consideration of the hard choices they are forced to make. Most importantly, we want to ignore the fact that children are among them.
What we miss, all too often, is that in any immigration debate, we are ALWAYS talking about policies which affect families. We are ALWAYS referring to the welfare of children, whether we wish to acknowledge this fact or not.
I have been amazed, every time I have seen children play in refugee camps or on the roadside, by their ability to adapt to every circumstance, to invent alternative forms of games and to continue playing.
But I am aware that, without restorative healing, the trauma they have experienced will have serious long term effects on their ability to live healthy lives years into the future.
Though I am amazed that children can develop coping mechanisms which allow them to survive throughout the worst experiences, I am tired of being part of a world which chooses to make this resiliency necessary.
I am tired of a world which prefers not to see them, or, worse yet, is content to allow them to continue to suffer because we have learned that we can count on their resiliency to hide their true pain from our eyes.
When we talk about migrants, please remember we are talking about children; we are always talking about children.
To learn more about Ray Schellinger as one of our Global Peace Warriors: Click here.
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